Vaccination Calendar

Our handy vaccine schedule helps keep track of your baby and child's vaccinations. To find out when your child should go for another jab, fill in his or her birth date and the vaccination calculator will tell you.

Enter your kid’s birthday

Date / AgeBCGOVPDPTHEP BVMEASLESDT

BCGOVP 0

OVP 1DPT 1HEP BV 1

OVP 2DPT 2HEP BV 2

OVP 3DPT 3HEP BV 3

MEASLES 1

OVP 4DPT 2MEASLES 2

OVP 5DT

BCG

This vaccine to fight TB is required in South Africa at birth and will automatically be given to your baby in the hospital. Called after Bacille Calmette-Guerin, it is a freeze-dried vaccine prepared from an attenuated strain of bovine TB. If no scar is visible at three months, then the vaccine is repeated. South Africa still has a high rate of TB infection, in spite of this vaccination, but it seems to protect children against TB meningitis and milliary (widely disseminated) TB, both potentially fatal.

DTP, TD

These are killed toxoids, covering diptheria, tetanus and pertussis, or just diptheria and tetanus in the TD vaccine. Diptheria is a severe infection of the throat in which a membrane forms which can block the airway and cause the child to smother and die. It used to occur in epidemics associated with a high mortality. It is largely unknown in the developed world. Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is a serious illness caused by the bacterium Clostridium tetani. It is present worldwide and can affect any age. It is potentially fatal, particularly in young children. Pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, although a mild illness in older children, is associated with complications in children under one year and is particularly dangerous to those under one month.

Hep B

Hepatitis B is endemic in Africa, which is why routine immunisation of children has been introduced fairly recently. It is a serious disease of the liver, for which there 10 produced by recombinant DNA technology in yeasts. Both types have been shown to be safe.

Polio

In South Africa trivalent oral polio vaccine (TOPV) is used. It is given by mouth and contains a weakened version of the polio virus. Polio is a potentially devastating disease, still endemic in Africa. At its worst it results in paralysis, and even people now in middle age may have had friends at school who used calipers on their legs as a result of childhood polio infection leaving them with weak, damaged muscles.

Hib

Since 1999 South African babies are given three vaccinations against haemophilia influenza type b (Hib) bacteria, which are given in a combined vaccine with DTP. Most of us have this bacterium in their bodies, but it doesn’t normally cause disease in people with normal immune systems. Small children who are not immunised are in danger of developing the disease, which can cause meningitis and pneumonia.

Measles

Measles is a highly contagious - but rare - respiratory infection that's caused by a virus. It causes a total-body skin rash and flu-like symptoms, including a fever, cough, and runny nose. The measles vaccine is part of the measles-mumps-rubella immunizations (MMR) given at 12 to 15 months of age and again at 4 to 6 years of age. Measles vaccine is not usually given to infants younger than 12 months old.